Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Sepia Saturday 184 : 6 July 2013

The image I’ve chosen this week is a little different as it is not a sepia photograph, but it does have an historical context and it pays tribute to a remarkable discovery.

On this day, July 6th, 1885 Louis Pasteur successfully treated a boy with rabies vaccine.This plaque in Arbois is one side of a pillar dedicated to Pasteur and his achievements. It comes from Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Now, before we go any further, let me state right at the outset that there is absolutely NO need to try and match the prompt picture. It doesn’t have to be a picture at all (see the information box on the right), and we welcome any response. We would just like you to join in and have fun. Many of you do like the extra challenge however, so to get you started, here are my first thoughts on where this prompt may take you: commemorative plaques, memorials, sculptures/sculptors, group portraits, medical science, famous (or not) scientists/doctors, anything French, mad dogs!

After you've published on your blog, somewhere around Saturday 6 July, don't forget to add the link to your actual post (by clicking on its title within the post and then copying the URL which this generates) to Mr Linky, and then leave a comment below. Please link back to this Sepia Saturday page, and there is a mini-banner to add too if you choose.

Feeling pretty pleased with yourself by now? Share the joy by visiting as many other contributors as you can. If the mood takes you leave them a comment as well; we Sepians thrive on comments, and being a courteous bunch we will try to return the favour.

Not one Sepian told me where ‘caverns measureless to man’ came from in last week’s call. It was of course, Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’. Didn’t any of you have to recite this at school? Just time to mention that we have a Facebook group where those genuinely interested in dialogue with other Sepians, are welcome. We share ideas, jokes, picture and give technical support. In fact the prompt for SS 187 came from a thread on that very page. Something else to tantalise you with.

Before you start chiselling away at this week’s challenge, here are the peeks into the next two prompts, to give you some thinking time.

185: To many of you this is an all too familiar scene just now. Midsummer has past and some of you have yet to see much of the sun. Sepians are scattered all over the globe however, and whatever the weather where you are you're bound to find some images of umbrellas, parasols, or even bus shelters! Time to run for cover?

186. This fine figure of a woman is either ‘Boadecea or Mother England’ or possibly Britannia. You can choose; or go with armour, helmets, shields, fancy dress, pantomime, theatricals, warlike women or big sticks.

Sepia Saturday

Launched by Alan Burnett and Kat Mortensen in 2009, Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind (they don't have to be sepia) become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, all we ask is that your sign up to the weekly Linky List, that you try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and that you have fun.